Paul,

There are lots of advantages to each and every new arranger keyboard that's out there today. I'm a Yamaha fan--no question about it, and I have owned other brands. The decission which to purchase should be based on your specific needs--not the likes and dislikes of the good folks on this forum. The best advice I can give you is to sit down and carefully evaluate each and every board you can, then go home, think long and hard, then make your decission. If necessary, go back and repeat the process. If I recall from another post, you live in Frederick, Maryland. You're just a short drive from Rockville and Washington Music. I would strongly urge you to go there and go through all of the keyboards they have on display. They have an enormous selection of nearly every major brand and a very knowledgeable person working in that department.

One of the things you will ultimately discover is there is a lot of support for Yamaha boards, and when it comes to third party style files, there are more Yamaha files available than all the other boards combined.

Sounds like you're going to have lots of fun in the next few weeks.

Good Luck,

Gary